This is one of my favorite winter’s sweets. My grandma used to make it quite often when I was a kid, and I used to love hers.
This is my version of the apple strudel.I hope you will enjoy it too!
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 250 gwhite flour type 0
- 100 mltable water
- 20 mlsunflower oil (cold pressed)
- 5 gtable salt
- 1egg
For the filling
- 125 gsultanas
- 75 gpinenuts
- 30 gbutter
- 4apples (variety Rennetta)
- 3 spoonsbreadcrumbs
- 2 spoonsLight muscovado sugar
- 2 spoonsquince jam (or apricot jam)
- 1lemon (juice)
- 1 glassMarsala wine
- 1zest of a tangerine (or orange)
- 1 teaspoonground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoonground cloves
Preparation
For the pastry
– sift the flour onto a large bowl;
– dilute the salt into the water, then pour it onto the flour;
– mix well with your hands and add the oil too;
– keep on mixing with your hand and add the egg;
– mix everything together with your hands till you start to get a dough;
– transfer the dough onto a flour-dusted working surface and knead well till you get a smooth ball;
– brush the dough with some oil, then transfer it into a bowl;
– cover with some cling film and store it away from air drafts for 1 hour;
For the filling
– soak the sultanas in the Marsala wine for about 60 minutes;
– meanwhile, peel the apples and chop them in cubes;
– put the chopped apples in a bowl and pour the lemon juice onto them (this will avoid oxidation);
– put the butter in a small saucepan;
– put the saucepan on a stove on medium heat;
– as soon as the butter melts and heats up, pour the breadcrumbs;
– stir well till the breadcrumbs absorb the butter;
– when the breadcrumbs are toasted, remove the saucepan from the stove;
– drain the sultanas and the apples, mix them together in a big bowl;
– add the toasted breadcrumbs and all the remaining ingredients for the filling;
– mix everything well;
To make the strudel
– roll out the pastry into a long thin, 2 millimeter thick, rectangle;
– brush its top with some oil;
– spread the filling onto the pastry, leaving about 2cm spaces from each edge;
– fold the 4 edges of the pastry on the filling as shown in the picture (this way the strudel will be perfectly sealed, and the filling won’t come out);
– now roll up the strudel till the end;
make sure that the sealing-end of the roll is under the strudel;
– brush the strudel with oil or milk;
– bake at 170 degrees for about 35/40 minutes or till golden;
– allow to cool down before serving;